But we don’t want to rush into anything!
But the town council has a vision …
… albeit an unhurried one.
Actually the council hasn’t had a vision; it has paid someone else to have a vision. That someone is …
The company is a relative newcomer (2013) to the game, but must be important and good because its on-line CV is in very big print.
With offices in London, Utrecht, Portland (Oregan) and even Hampshire, they’ve got to be ideally placed to advise on Daventry. Their web site is somewhat lacking in examples of their global reach, however.
Hmmmm?
Anyway, the report is choc-a-bloc with proposals to make the town look pretty, to improve the environment for walkers, cyclists, elephant trainers and, of course, to save the planet.
Now Daventry has growed a bit big! Here is the town in the 1930s …
… and here is the town today.
Note the huge Royal Oak industrial estate …
Daventry has a bus station. Well, sort of …
… just behind a hedge on New Street.
It is next to Tesco and shares an entrance with the store’s car park – well, every little helps.
The retailer of repute is the rectangular slab in the above Google view, top right. Note, in passing, the juxtaposition of the bus station and the car park opposite.
There are four very tatty shelters serving six head-in reverse out stands.
No toilers, no waiting room, no enquiry office; absolutely NOTHING to aid the passenger.
So what is Troy proposing to enhance the environment, accessibility and user-friendliness of this very basic interchange facility?
Answer – get rid of it all together!
Here is what the consultants say, in a paeon of praise for the environmental benefits of bus versus car.
AIM
To change the character and hierarchy of New Street from a car dominant space, to a pedestrian and cycle friendly environment.
PROPOSALS / INTERVENTIONS
1. Make New Street one-way to reduce road widths and provide space for a new cycle route and wider footpaths.
2. Make drivers more aware of people movement through improved traffic slowing measures. Implement colour and texture change along the length of New Street carriage way.
3. Explore the potential to develop the former Magistrates Car Park with a development that creates a positive / active frontage and helps positively addresses the road junction.
4. Explore options for redeveloping the Police and Magistrates court buildings for a mixed use development with commercial uses at ground floor (with possibly a hotel above). Any such scheme would seek to retain the court element of the Magistrates building. This would be the subject of a detailed development brief.
And the bus station?
The underused bus station is prominent and unattractive in the street scene as it is heavily surfaced and could therefore be reinvented to have a more attractive alternative use.
Almost hidden is the plan to relocate the stops to on-street locations in New Street. Quite how Troy defines “underused” is unclear as almost anyone who takes a bus to or from the town centre will use the bus station.
And what might that alternative us be, pray.
There’s Tesco with its car park and by the big green number 6 is something that looks very much like a car park.
A different map, outlining a different part of the project, spills the beans.
And there it is, clearly at Number 10.
Troy wants too turn Daventry’s inadequate bus station into a car park.
Thanks a bunch Troy. Thanks a bunch Daventry town council.
So glad to see that your environmental aims work out in favour of the motor car and against the bus.
Here is a better idea:-
Close New Street completely except for buses. Dramatically improve the ambiance and facilities of the new high quality bus station and enhance ALL the services.
And maybe stop telling lies, Stagecoach.
More about these “improvements” in tomorrow’s blog using information from Northampton Alan who took a trip to Daventry earlier in the week.
P.S. Troy does have one bus pictured in its extensive report.
Recognise it? It is an induction charged midibus operated briefly by Arriva on route 7 in Milton Keynes.
The project was a technical failure – so ideal to improve the environment in Daventry.
Daventry “On The Spot” blog : Friday 3rd Nov
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